Stomp The House

2015 – 2016 Season

Another evening of memory-making music and all-family fun is in store as The Panama City POPS presents “Stomp the House,” at 7:30pm on March 12 at the Marina Civic Center.

The concert follows The POPS tradition of a combination of classical works and popular arrangements, this time featuring special guests, The Panama City Youth Orchestra.

Opening the evening will be “The Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra,” a 1946 musical classic by British composer Benjamin Britten written for an educational film that would introduce children to the orchestra. The piece, complete with narration, features the different families of instruments in the orchestra and finishes with all instruments combining to play the piece in its entirety. Local educator Judy Dickey will accompany the orchestra as narrator.

“A tacit goal of The Panama City POPS has always been to include concert programs that inform and entertain young audiences as well as adult patrons,” stated POPS Board of Directors President, Michael Dickey. “Last year’s POPS performance of Prokofiev’s ‘Peter and The Wolf’ was a box office hit with all ages. We feel sure that families will listen to, learn from, and love the music that has introduced hundreds of thousands of children to classical music.”

Britten’s piece is only the beginning of the fun. The second half continues as The POPS invites the Panama City Youth Orchestra to the stage to perform with the adult musicians. Led by a volunteer team of conductors, Cody Smith, Sandy Rosengren and Cathy Stevens, this group of forty young string instrument students gathers weekly at the Historic McKenzie House in downtown Panama City to rehearse. Their private teachers mentor them during the week.

“Helping children understand and be interested in music is important to The POPS. We’re performing this concert with an emphasis on children to once again give back to our community and its music education system,” states Maestro Eddie Rackley. “It isn’t often that young people get to hear an orchestra. Some may never know or realize what an oboe or clarinet, a cello or double bass sound like. Through the engaging narration of Britten’s piece they will learn how to identify these instruments. And then they’ll see and hear their peers performing on stage. Who knows where it may lead from there?!”

The program will also include the soulful “Trumpet Concerto in A-flat major” by Alexander Arutiunian performed by soloist, Dr. Randall Haynes.

As for the title of this evening’s concert, “People will not want to miss the concert’s encore,” teases Maestro Rackley. “We never tip our hand on the title of the encore, but it’s an original arrangement on a very popular piece by a Grammy award winning American band.”

The final concert date for the 2015-2016 season is May 7, 2016. All regular season concerts are performed at the Marina Civic Center and start at 7:30 pm.